Education: Early Childhood Education, Educational Attainment

Sunday

Feb 16, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Family and community factors affect how well young children learn, leaving our at-risk children behind. Research has shown that children affected by risk factors such as poverty, family status, or poor school system are more likely to enter school behind their peers, struggle in school, or drop out altogether. Risk factors like those listed below can hurt a child's chances of doing well in school.

In Erie County:

n 43.3 percent of children under age five live in low-income families.

n 18.6 percent of births are to mothers with less than a high school education.

Crucial risk factors for children under the age of five increased over that same time period. When compared to the best counties in Pennsylvania regarding risk factors for young children, Erie County ranks substantially lower in every measurement. When comparing the past two years, Erie County has declined in all but one category (PSSA, math). For the future of these children and our community to be successful, these trends must be addressed and reversed.

Quality and education-based early childhood education is a crucial element in the development of young children. The participation rates of children in Erie County in education-based pre-school programs increased consistently from school years 2007-08 to 2010-2011. Additionally, crucial risk factors for children under the age of five increased over that same time period.

When comparing Erie County to the state and the largest counties in Pennsylvania, Erie was the only county to experience an increase in participation in 2008-2009. While not a huge increase, it does represent a positive trend in early childhood education for Erie County.

Erie's Future Fund, which The Erie Community Foundation supported with a $200,000 grant, is making progress in increasing enrollment of three- and four-year-olds in quality preschools. According to Nancy Kalista, executive director of Early Connections, and Michelle Harkins, Erie's Future Fund scholarship director, 515 low-income children now go to preschool.

The National Association for the Education of Young Children is an additional indicator for early childhood education. In Erie County, there are only six NAEYC-accredited programs compared to 309 across the Commonwealth. Ideally, the number of NAEYC-accredited programs will increase as more of a focus is placed on quality early childhood education in Erie County.

Educational Attainment

Educational attainment in Erie County has fluctuated over the past four years. Generally, attainment levels are classified into four broad categories: less than a high school graduate, high school graduate (including equivalency), some college or associate degree, and a bachelor's degree or higher. Clearly, a county would like to see trend lines of "less than high school graduates" decreasing and the other three categories increasing.

From 2006 to 2011, Erie County made little progress towards decreasing the percentage of residents with less than a high school diploma or GED. According to data from the American Community Survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, the percentage of the population with less than a high school diploma decreased slightly from 15.1 percent to 13.5 percent.

In addition, over the same period, the percentage of the population with a bachelor's degree or higher declined from 11.8 percent to 8.3 percent.

Between 2006 and 2011, Erie made some progress in reducing the percent of the population 25 years and over with less than a high school degree. The region also made progress increasing the percentage of the population 25 or over with a bachelor's degree or higher.

Educational attainment is directly correlated to financial earnings. In Erie in 2010, there was an approximate $16,640 per year difference in median earnings for high school graduates compared to those with a bachelor's degree. VS